The Truth
by invisible0one
Summary: Danny is constantly walking into class late and frazzled. Lancer can't help but wonder what the boy has gotten himself into and takes it upon himself to figure out the truth behind Danny's mystery of a life.
1. Monday

He walked into class just as tired and frazzled as usual. The only notable thing was the jacket he was wearing, then again it had gotten a little colder over the past few days. And while the boy had always acted as though the mere touch of a jacket would damn him to hell and only ever wore them when he would almost literally freeze otherwise, there was no reason to assume he hadn't just finally come to his senses when it came to the weather.

Yes, Danny was quite the puzzling student. He was practically failing, but when he was in class long enough to complete his assignments, he always got high grades. Send him home to do it and he got a C if he was lucky. Honestly, the in-class work he actually managed to finish was the only reason he hadn't dropped below his C average. Lancer watched to boy dash in and out of class on a daily basis, leaving only to return in worse shape than he'd left. Even with the dozens of detentions he managed to rack up, he was still constantly leaving. After a while, Lancer just stopped asking for a reason, realizing that the boy was going to make a run for it regardless of what he said. He simply resigned to having a detention form at his desk for Danny when ever he decided to show back up.

Lancer wasn't quite sure why he let the boy off so easily. Perhaps he'd just come to realize that whatever Danny was doing, he couldn't stop him if he tried.

Actually, he had tried once only to back down when Danny's shoulders squared and a look the teacher couldn't quite identify flashed in his eyes. Perhaps it was the green that the lights had caused to his eyes to turn for a second, but Lancer found himself backing away from the door and letting the boy pass.

As he saw what had to be the most confusing student in his teaching career walk in a little more jittery than usual, though, Lancer made it a goal to figure out what was wrong with the kid. And he'd be damned if he didn't find out.

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_I think I've had the start of this short story in my notebook for ages now..._

_I'm sick, bored out of my mind, and it's the anniversary of Danny... New personal challenge: Finish this story by the end of the day. This will be five chapters long and it'll be updated throughout the day as I finish each chapter. :)_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

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_Invisible One_


	2. Tuesday

Danny walked in wearing that jacket once more even though the chill that had been there the day before had retreated some. It wasn't warm enough to make those with a jacket look insane, but it was certainly warm enough that Danny usually wouldn't even bother with it. Yet even with the warmer weather, Danny once more walked in wearing the same jacket as the day before.

But it wasn't the jacket that caught Lancer's attention this time. It was the way his hair seemed to be slightly farther off to the side than normal. Lancer had to fight to keep himself quiet when he realized that it was because Danny was trying to hide a nasty looking bruise on the side of his head. How the hell had the boy managed that? It couldn't be problems at home. Lancer had met the Fenton's and while they were a little exuberant, he somehow doubted they were abusive.

But if it wasn't that, then why did the boy have such a nasty looking bruise? As hard as he tried, the over weight teacher couldn't find another explanation.

He really needed to find out what was wrong with his student, and soon. He needed to get this cleared up before Danny really got himself in trouble.

Danny froze up for a second before asking to "use the bathroom." If this kept up much longer, the boy was going to end up in credit recovery for the amount of missed class he had racked up. Lancer was already convinced it was his time in detention alone that technically kept him in class long enough to receive credit.

Lancer let him pass once more, and he could have sworn there was a flash of light just outside the classroom door, but he had to be seeing things, right? And even if he wasn't, surely it was pure coincidence that it happened just as Danny walked out.

No. He had been explaining things away by allowing himself to think things were just coincidence for far too long. Whatever that flash was, Lancer refused to believe it was just a matter of chance that the flash happened as Danny walked out the door until he could prove it.

He took out a blank sheet of paper as soon as he'd set the rest of the class to work on their assignment and wrote down what little he had noticed about a certain Daniel Fenton.

**-Constantly running out of class**

**-Shows up with mysterious injuries**

**-Light flash after running out**

That was it, he thought. Wait, there was the green in his eyes last week when Lancer had finally tried to just stop the boy from running out. That really could have been a trick of the light, but Lancer put it down anyway, he wasn't going to get anywhere by ignoring little details like that.

**-Green eyes(?)**

Well, that list revealed...just how little he really had to go off of. He would need to start paying more attention if he was going to get the truth out of Danny. Lancer always did like a good mystery.

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_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

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_Invisible One_


	3. Wednesday

Lancer had spent way too much of the previous night trying to figure out what connected the few dots he'd managed to find, and had gotten no farther in solving the mystery of Danny Fenton. He had stayed late into the night and had forced himself to leave the list on his desk as to keep himself from staying up all night trying to piece it together. It hadn't really helped, but he had to try. Lancer walked to his room, a little later than he'd like to be for morning tutorials, but he hadn't assigned any major projects, it was likely no one would notice he wasn't there anyway.

As he suspected, there were no students waiting to get into his room for some last minute tweaks on a project he'd assigned weeks ago. No, what met his eyes was a rather beat Danny Phantom standing at his desk, his left foot at an odd angle, holding his list of the oddities surrounding Danny Fenton.

"He's really trying to figure it out. I doubt he'll get any farther than mom and dad did." Phantom let out a short laugh before putting the page down and leaving. The teacher was confused, what did Phantom have to do with Fenton? It had to be something if Phantom knew what it was that Lancer was trying to piece together, but that didn't give the teacher any answers. It was something else to add to his list of oddities though.

**-Connected to Phantom**

He sighed as he sat at his desk, staring at the list for the twenty minutes before the first bell was due to ring. He was getting nowhere with this. He needed to get something out of Daniel himself. Just about anything would do, just about anything would help him. He knew there was something huge connecting these dots, but the English major couldn't spot it. Maybe he'd have to ask Danny during detention today. Wednesdays were the day Danny reported to Lancer for detention, his other teachers hogged him every other afternoon as he was missing just as much of their classes as he was English.

The bell rang and students started filing into his class. As usual, Danny was the last to walk in, though Lancer was thankful he arrived with the tardy bell rather than after it as Danny so often did. The boy walked in without that jacket today, but Lancer noticed a scar running down his right arm, one that had most certainly not been there last week, and the bruise he had spotted yesterday was gone. But how? A bruise like that should have taken days to heal, and scars don't appear over the course of a few days.

Then he noticed the slight limp Danny was trying to hide. It hit Lancer that Phantom had shown up with a clear injury on his foot this morning, but they couldn't be one and the same, right?

But what if they were? The teacher looked back at his list and decided it was worth adding; it would be easier to figure this out with too many points than with not nearly enough.

**-Connected to Phantom**

**-Same injuries(?)**

Lancer taught his classes with only half the enthusiasm as he usually managed, something he considered a feat as his mind wasn't truly in the material he was attempting to teach to the room of disinterested teenagers. Honestly, he was just waiting for the day to end so he could talk to Danny.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang, delivering a rather tired looking Daniel Fenton to Lancer's room. "Hey, Mr. Lancer."

"Hello, Danny." Lancer looked the boy over and noticed the limp he was trying to hide this morning was now gone and the scar he'd seen on Danny's arm looked a lot smaller than when he'd last seen the boy. This was rather odd...his injuries were healing way too fast to be normal.

"I have a proposition for you, Daniel." This perked the boy's interest as it was intended to and Lancer continued speaking. "I have some questions for you, and if you'll answer them I'll let you go early today."

Danny fidgeted a bit as he thought this over, but eventually gave in. "Fine, but I can't guarantee you'll like what I have to say." Lancer accepted this, he wasn't naive enough to believe Danny would just answer his questions without keeping some things to himself.

"I need the truth, Danny. What have you gotten yourself into? Is it drugs, gangs, abuse from your parents?" The ghost boy looked back at Lancer, disbelief in his eyes.

"Do you really think I'd get into any of that stuff? And my parents would never lay a hand on me." Danny looked away for a split second, and Lancer could have sworn he heard the boy mumble something along the lines of "not on purpose, at least..."

"If that's not it, then what is it, Danny?"

Danny shook his head. "If I could tell you, I would, but I can't. I know I can't stop you from trying to figure it out, but you're honestly better off not knowing."

Lancer stared at his student as he started to walk out. Danny was normally so easy going and care free, but his tone was so serious.

"Daniel, you haven't gotten yourself into any fights, have you?"

Danny stopped, then kept walking. "Bye, Mr. Lancer."

Lancer had another thing to add to his list.

**-Gets into fights of some sort**

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_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always!_

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_Invisible One_


	4. Thursday

"Lord of the Flies, Daniel. Just what have you gotten yourself into?" Lancer was looking at that list of his once more, and he wasn't getting anywhere. He'd thought talking to Danny the day before would help him solve this mystery, but it hadn't really helped him much.

**-Constantly running out of class**

**-Shows up with mysterious injuries**

**-Light flash after running out**

**-Green eyes(?)**

**-Connected to Phantom**

**-Same injuries(?)**

**-Gets into fights of some sort**

Lancer couldn't shake the feeling that what he was looking for was practically blinding him by this point, lighting up nearly as bright as the infamous FentonWorks sign, but he still couldn't find his answer. Something huge was eluding his sight, and it was bugging him to no end. He knew Danny wasn't going to give him any more answers, so he was on his own to solve this.

He looked out his window minutes after third period started, the first of his two free periods, and saw Danny Phantom once more flying through the skies in his latest ghost fight.

Ghost fighting. The Fenton elders were well known for their ghost hunting. Was it possible that Danny fought the specters as well? Lancer had always assumed Danny ran for the hills as soon as a ghost fight started, but was it possible the boy was helping from the sidelines? He always did seem to make a run for it right before Phantom appeared...and come to think of it, hadn't he seen Danny single handedly fighting off that Box Ghost once or twice?

That had to be it. The boy was ghost fighting. It did explain where he was running off to all the time, the fights Danny had specifically avoided mentioning, and the injuries. But why couldn't he have just told the teacher that? And that certainly didn't clear up everything on his list of oddities. Sure, Lancer could have accepted one or two extra pieces of information, but four? No, there was something else Lancer was missing.

"Damn it, Danny. What hell are you hiding?" Lancer usually wouldn't curse, preferring to use book titles instead knowing full and well that was the only reason half his students ever knew any book titles, but in this case he couldn't help himself. The answer was right in front of his face, but it still eluded him and he was frustrated beyond measure. Yes, he liked a good mystery, but there was nothing worse to him than realizing he'd missed something huge when the answer finally came out.

Screw it. This was only frustrating him and if he didn't take a break, he'd never get any farther with it, much less actually manage to teach his classes. He'd stop worrying about it for today, enjoy a nice classic novel tonight, and then hit this case with everything he had tomorrow.

Lancer was going to figure Danny out tomorrow, and may hell be merciful to anyone who got in his way.

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_I could have finished this yesterday, but I got distracted... Why is it that I can focus on everything except the few things I enjoy? o_O_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

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_Invisible One_


	5. Friday

All things considered, Lancer had had a nice evening last night, quite a feat considering he'd been fighting not to think about the mystery surrounding Daniel Fenton. Now, he was arriving early to his class as he always did, ready to put a fresh mind to work on this case.

He looked over his list, and realized one oddity he hadn't put down. He wasn't sure whether or not it would help him figure this out, but it was worth a shot.

**-Constantly running out of class**

**-Shows up with mysterious injuries**

**-Light flash after running out**

**-Green eyes(?)**

**-Connected to Phantom**

**-Same injuries(?)**

**-Gets into fights of some sort**

**-Heals at almost inhuman speeds**

Lancer looked at his list again before deciding that his thoughts were much too jumbled to get him anywhere. Perhaps sorting them into some kind of logical chain would help him? He looked to the clock; he had fifteen more minutes to work on this before he had to give something to his class to work on.

**-Constantly running out of class**

**-Light flash after running out**

**-Gets into fights (ghost fighting)**

**-Shows up with mysterious injuries**

**-Same injuries as Phantom(?)**

**-Heals at almost inhuman speeds**

**-Connected to Phantom**

The early bell rang. Had it really taken him that long to reorder things? He'd have to stop for now, assign his latest paper, then get back to work. This was an assignment he'd been planning on giving for a while, but now it seemed like it could give him his missing piece if Danny was willing to answer truthfully.

_Write at least one full page regarding an incident that changed your life. Due before you leave today._

Lancer shook his head at the one page writing assignment. One page, he was assigning one measly page worth of writing to his ninth grade class to complete over the course of forty-five minutes. Standards really had dropped ever since the ghost issue caused the city to cut funding for the Gifted and Talented LEAP program. Honestly, back when he was in school he'd have gotten fifteen minutes for the exact same assignment and had it called a warm-up. Oh well, at least Danny would have no excuse for not finishing even if he had to run out of class.

The teacher had planned on using the period to continue mulling over the mystery of Daniel Fenton, but for once his students were actually asking for help. God only knows why this had to be the one assignment of the year they actually cared about, but he had to offer assistance by doing things such as informing Paulina that, no, the creation of her favorite make-up does not qualify as a life changing event. When did kids start caring so much about such pointless things?

Danny turned in his assignment, along with those of Sam and Tucker, ten minutes till the bell. For the first time all period, Lancer was allowed to actually sit down, and he heard Danny curse just as he dropped the papers on the teacher's desk. He just waved the boy off, knowing what he was about to ask. While Lancer knew Danny wasn't actually going to the bathroom, he wasn't about to try stopping the boy. Now that he had been paying more attention to him, Lancer could hardly believe that the green eyes he'd seen were purely a trick of the light.

Speaking of which, looking over his list, he'd forgotten to put that in when he rearranged his points. Lancer just jotted it down at the bottom, it was the best place for it anyway.

Danny returned as the bell rang to signal the end of the period and hurried out the door as soon as he'd grabbed his things.

Lancer sat down as soon as he set his second period class off on the same assignment his first period had been given. This class was his quiet one, he knew he would be able to get some work done this period and sifted through the pile of messily written pages until he found the one belonging to his student of interest. Lancer had promised himself he would figure the boy out today, and he fully planned on living up to his own promise.

_An incident that changed my life? I doubt you realize how many different things that could refer to. The biggest one though, was the portal accident. I probably should pick something most kids would write about, but what good would that be? Jazz is always telling me I need to vent and get my feelings out somewhere. I'll admit, using an English paper to do that probably isn't my best move, but you're already so close to figuring it out, Mr. Lancer. Honestly, you're probably closer than you think._

_The portal accident at the beginning of the year is the most life changing event to date for me. It changed me, it unleashed the ghosts, and it gave me responsibility and a mess to clean up._

_Sam is over here telling me it's stupid to write about the accident when you're already so close, but maybe I'm just tired of lying, tired of taking punishment after punishment for something I can't help, tired of trying to pretend my friends and sister are enough support to get me through this._

_They don't even know half the shit I've gotten myself into._

_That portal accident changed me in more ways than most people realize. Most people just saw a good kid stop caring about the rules and curfews, but that's not the case._

_I just found something I cared about more._

That...wasn't really what Lancer was expecting out of Danny. He wasn't sure what he was expecting out of his most puzzling student, but it wasn't that. Regardless, Lancer had to admit Danny had handed him a lot of information in that single page of writing.

The portal accident. Now that Lancer thought about it, that really was right around when all this started. When everything started, the ghosts, Danny's problems, the lack of funding.

Phantom appeared when the Fenton portal opened too.

Wait. Fenton/Phantom. Lancer nearly smacked himself upside the head. He was an English major and he had missed that alliteration? Where was his mind when he needed it? He looked back at his list.

**-Constantly running out of class**

**-Light flash after running out**

**-Gets into fights (ghost fighting)**

**-Shows up with mysterious injuries**

**-Same injuries as Phantom(?)**

**-Heals at almost inhuman speeds**

**-Connected to Phantom**

**-Green eyes(?)**

Seriously, how hadn't he seen that earlier? He had realized there was a connection between Fenton and Phantom days ago and he just now realized there really was a connection? But...could they really be the same person?

Lancer realized he'd never seen both Fenton and Phantom in the same room.

Phantom has the same neon green eyes Danny had displayed just last week.

Danny keeps showing up with injuries that are nearly identical to Phantom's.

Danny fights ghosts, but only Phantom is ever seen.

Danny's injuries heal at inhuman speeds because…

"Dear lord...he isn't fully human anymore." He was thankful the third period tardy bell had rang just as he said that; his room was empty as he mulled over this revelation. There was no one there to assume he'd just lost his mind. Daniel Fenton was Danny Phantom.

As if on a silent cue, Phantom came flying into Lancer's room, breaking a few desks when he landed.

The teacher watched as rings started to form around the boy's waist, moving quickly to opposite ends of his form. Danny Fenton looked to Lancer from his spot on the ground after he shook the bits of wall from his hair. His hand promptly went to the back of his neck.

"Uh...don't tell my parents?"

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_MUHAHAHAHAHA. I FINISHED IT._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

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_Invisible One_


End file.
